Good way to begin this new day.
Just saw in the car parking in front of my apartment members of the same family (with 5 meters between them) singing "Happy birthday" to their father/grandfather who was watching from his balcony.
Keep safe, stay at home and have a nice day.

This is for Jordi, who evidently likes exotic plants. Autumn In the south western Cape, South Africa is our spring, when plants sense the coming winter rains. Some flower before producing leaves. These Haemanthus coccineus are in a container on my verandah, but there are wild ones flowering in the low coastal scrub nearby.

...Then found the local rock shop was open and bought a few fossil items...

Not a good idea. The John Hopkins University at Baltimore warned today that the data show that the spread of contagion in the United States is accelerating at a similar rate or even higher than in Italy itself. While in Italy the daily increase was at least 20% on average for the first 19 days of the epidemic, in the United States it is increasing and rises already up to 48% daily.

Everybdoy should take care, in Europe we don't take it so seriously at first and now look...

I went to the beach at Lake Michigan today and found a few interesting rocks. Then found the local rock shop was open and bought a few fossil items.

Not a good idea. The John Hopkins University at Baltimore warned today that the data show that the spread of contagion in the United States is accelerating at a similar rate or even higher than in Italy itself. While in Italy the daily increase was at least 20% on average for the first 19 days of the epidemic, in the United States it is increasing and rises already up to 48% daily.

Everybdoy should take care, in Europe we don't take it so seriously at first and now look...

Be careful dear friends

Totally agree with Jordi. The situation is dramatic in Europe. In Switzerland, a country with a good healthcare infrastructure, the hospitals will be saturated in 2 or 3 days.
Stay at home.

Let me set the record straight, again noting that I am a retired MD pathologist with 30 years experience.
And as a matter of coincidence, my medical practice was with a group in Northern Indiana so I am rather personally familiar with the SW Michigan/Lake Michigan area, where Mr Saunders said he lives.
I lived right there.

If Mr Saunders' trip to the Lake Michigan lakeshore was by himself and no one was around, there was nothing wrong with that. It was his stop in the rock shop that was not a good idea.

People can be outside and be perfectly safe. Taking walks or hikes in the woods are fine. People rock collecting in isolated areas are fine. People walking, by themselves, on a lakeshore are fine.
People bicycling by themselves are fine. People playing tennis with no one else around are fine.

What is not fine and not recommended are people being in close or crowded enclosed spaces or in close association in outside spaces such as a crowded beach or crowded outdoor sports event or even a crowded wedding or funeral etc etc.

Getting to these isolated situations should be done with extreme care, but being by yourself outside with no one else around is fine. Fresh air is fine.

I will also have another posting on rural America. There are very large areas in the US with many smaller towns that have no out of area travel and little interaction with larger cities . So far, these areas have relatively little Coronavirus infection rates; whether this will continue or infection rates skyrocket is yet to be seen. BOB

Here at BlueCap Productions, we recognize that these are extraordinary, and dangerous, times for all of us. Never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine that we'd ever have to face something that would bring our entire community to a screeching halt. I guess I just didn't think big enough.

I've heard many stories from fellow mineral collecting people in Northern Italy about the situation there and I've URGED others, as strongly as I can, to take this seriously and take your precautions otherwise we'll be in the same, tragic, situation as Italy.

So other than washing your hands and sneezing/coughing into your elbow, one the best things we can do is self-isolate. And yes, we need to be prepared to do this FOR A WHILE.

It's going to be tough both spiritually AND economically but it something we NEED to do to help stem the tide of this new coronavirus.

Feeling a bit helpless, we thought that MAYBE if we release all of our What's Hot.. programs from 2019, it just MIGHT help a little bit in keeping people occupied.

So please feel free to spread the word. All What's Hot... programs have been launched on YouTube so EVERYONE can watch these programs for FREE and without any kind of registration.

Some very good news to celebrate the 10th day: in Catalonia they are already doing respirators using the 3D printing technology. The original design is in a generous open file at the Rice University of Texas and after some test in the "Consorcio de la Zona Franca" (CZFB) and the Oviedo University it is now validated by Dr. Lluís Blanch of the Parc Taulí Hospital, Sabadell, Barcelona, and currently is in full production by a group of companies and institutions (CatSalut, Seat, HP, Navantia, Airbus, Leitat) and no doubt it will save a lot of life.

Hi to everybody!
An update: last Saturday 793 people died, last Sunday 652, and yesterday 601. I can't move over 200m from my home, but for first nerd matters. Just big food markets and pharmacies are open and schools are closed till April 19 (if just so). I can't even stop inside the common spaces in my condominium, jogging etc. are strictly forbidden, ad well as traveling from one to another municipality.
Greetings from Italy and thank you so much for having demonstrated to me your friendship in so difficult a time!
Riccardo._________________Hi! I'm a collector of minerals since 1973 and a gemmologist. On Summer I always visit mines and quarries all over Europe looking for minerals! Ok, there is time to tell you much much more! Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

Since I wrote about the Lake Michigan beach and rock shop visit on Saturday our Governor issued a new lock down order to stay at home starting today. 3/24/2020. It is also stressed that people need to get outside and exercise, which beach combing is. So now the rock shop, barber and beauty shops and most anything not essential to life support is out. I would only guess that Michigan has some 2,000 miles or so of great lakes shoreline. Some of it still frozen under feet of snow, and otherwise non-accessible. So no, we don't have to be in close contact or shake hands with people on the beach.
We do have a large amount of homeless folks living on the streets, as do many states and cities. Where will they shelter in place? Major problem here is health care workers say that they barely have enough face masks for one shift out of 24 hours non stop. Or face shields. and dentists.

The coronavirus can survive on surfaces for up to 17 days, a study published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. The study examines two public health responses to COVID-19 outbreaks on the Carnival-owned Diamond Princess ship in Japan and the Grand Princess ship in California. The virus “was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated...” the researchers wrote._________________hogwild

The coronavirus can survive on surfaces for up to 17 days, a study published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. The study examines two public health responses to COVID-19 outbreaks on the Carnival-owned Diamond Princess ship in Japan and the Grand Princess ship in California. The virus “was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated...” the researchers wrote.

Interesting, our news media reports that your mail and packages are safe as the virus cannot live more than around 24 hours on card board. But a lot of delivery people are nervous about it.

We see that CV-19 has a strange (irregular) conduct in Europe where the number of infected people and victims continues to rise with contradictory but almost always bad news and in the USA it seems that it is beginning to impact strongly.
I consider that I have already done enough broadcasting work and that I have warned all the minsurfers, both Spanish-speakers and English-speakers of everything I have been able to do and know.

At this point, as I was not born as a prophet and in order not to continue circulating inside a dark tunnel without lights, I am going to change the subject and from now on I am going to talk in this thread about beautiful things that interest me and/or excite me.

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